As the National Assembly begins debating the
2016 Budget submitted by President
Muhammadu Buhari, there are specific
provisions in the proposals that will confront
poverty in the country in a bold and direct
way, the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo
has stated.
“We are dealing with the issues of poverty
with the 2016 Budget that is currently being
debated,” the Vice President said, noting that
“in a country where more than 110 million
Nigerians are extremely poor, we are bound to
have such health challenges, as having about
110,000 deaths yearly from Diarrhea.”
“All together there are 6 social protection
programmes of the Buhari administration for
which funds have been allocated in the 2016
budget. These are Teach Nigeria, where
500,000 graduates would be hired as
teachers, Youth Employment and
Empowerment-where between
300,000-500,000 youths would go through
skills acquisition and vocational training, the
Conditional Cash Transfer, where one million
extremely poor Nigerians will receive N5000
monthly this year, Homegrown School Feeding
where one meal a day would be served to
public primary school children across the
country, Free Education for tertiary education
100,000 students of Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics and the Micro-
Credit Scheme that will give N60,000 one time
soft loans to market women, and artisans”, he
stated.
The Vice President spoke during a courtesy
visit by a delegation of Reckitt Benckiser West
Africa, a household care products’ company
led by its West Africa Managing Director, Mr.
Rahul Murgai and the Chairman in Nigeria,
Chief Olu Falomo.
The company had earlier discussed with the
VP its “Save the Children Initiative”, a
Corporate Social Responsibility programme
designed to curb the deaths of Nigerian
children caused by Diarrhea.
While welcoming the initiative, Prof. Osinbajo
explained that a lot had to be done in the
country to confront poverty and its impacts on
Nigerians.
According to him, “when you have the number
of extremely poor Nigerians that we have in
this country, we are bound to have these
kinds of health problems”.
He added, however, that the 2016 Budget
proposals will deal with the overall problem of
poverty.
He said for the first time in the nation’s
history, about half a trillion Naira was being
provided for the six social investment
programmes.
The Vice President commended the company
for its intervention, saying “this is the sort of
thing we expect from those who have the
resources.”
Speaking earlier, Mr. Murgai said Reckitt
Benckiser, which has been doing business in
Nigeria for several decades wants to ensure
that the people of Nigeria are healthier and
happier.
He said the company was worried about
Diarrhea deaths and had set aside about
N1.2 billion to fight the situation in Nigeria.
Also, the Vice President received a delegation
from the Twelve-Twelve Polo and Turf Club,
Abuja led by Mallam Murtala Aliyu, the Club’s
Advisory Board Chairman.
Prof. Osinbajo, while appreciating the visit and
commending the efforts to set up such a club,
urged the members to consider making polo,
horse-racing and other equestrian sports
open and available to young people, who
otherwise may not be able to afford playing in
such expensive games.
“There would be many who can benefit from
this sport, young people in colleges who
might become great polo players, but won’t be
able to afford it,” the VP noted.
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